Friday, April 24, 2009

A small study has been done in which teeth were placed in a bath of sports drinks and also in a bath of water. The effects were compared. It was found that sports drinks caused corrosion in the enamel that would result in severe tooth decay if left untreated.

These researchers cut cow's teeth in half and immersed one half in a sports drink and the other half in water. The dental experts compared the result after around 90 minutes. The comparison viewed that the tooth place in the sports drink had clearly visible erosion, compared to the tooth place in water, which had no erosion. What was this erosion? There were visible holes forming in the enamel of the sports drink immersed tooth.

Another odd finding came out of this study. They found that brushing teeth immediately after tooth contact with sports drinks actually caused more damage. This is because the sports drinks softened the teeth thereby leaving the teeth subject to abrasion while brushing. It was the large amount of citric acid that actually softened the enamel to allow this to occur.